UPDATE: Air Force delays sending F-22s from New Mexico to Tyndall

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Air Force is delaying the planned transfer of F-22 fighters from a New Mexico base to Tyndall Air Force Base because of a defense spending freeze.

Staff and Wire Reports

Aircraft and personnel assigned to the 7th Fighter Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base were scheduled to move to Tyndall Air Force Base next spring, bringing hundreds of jobs to Bay County. But without a final defense appropriation and authorization bill, operations have come to a stalemate. Despite the freeze, units continue to plan and prepare for the mission change, The Alamogordo, N.M. Daily News reported.

U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, took the opportunity to blast Democratic Sen. Harry Reid for failure to pass a budget.

“Congress has been forced to operate under a series of short-term continuing resolutions because of Senator Reid's outright refusal to pass a budget in three years,” Southerland said in a written statement. “I believe that it is unacceptable for Washington to continue offering nothing but uncertainty to the American people, especially when it risks hampering the efficiency of military operations."

The fiscal year 2013 Continuing Resolution under which the Department of Defense is currently operating forbids the Air Force from retiring, divesting, realigning or transferring aircrafts that result in changes to force structure that would be permanent or irreversible. Additionally, in congressional testimony earlier this year, the secretary of the Air Force committed to wait for congressional deliberations before taking any action that would presume approval of proposed fiscal year 2013 force structure changes.

The decision to place additional F-22 Raptors at Tyndall AFB was announced in May 2010 with, what was then expected to be, around 500 jobs coming to the area along with the stealth fighters.

A year before, Tyndall lost 48 F-15s and more than 800 military personnel due to the Combat Air Force restructuring plan. In the months that followed a newly formed group, the Bay Defense Alliance, worked with military officials to replace the lost F-15 air superiority mission.

In June 2012, a series of meetings between Defense Alliance members and Air Force leadership resulted in an announcement of plans to merge the F-22 Formal Training Unit with an operational F-22 squadron at Tyndall. The result then was an addition of around 900 personnel.

With somewhat fluid deadlines, the Air Force then planned to send six F-16s this month and by March of 2013 Tyndall would see the first 12 combat-coded F-22s. By June, 2013, the full squadron of 24 F-22s would have arrived from Holloman, according to a Defense Alliance board update.

“The greatest threat to these plans may be the uncertainty that would result from failure of the U.S. Senate to pass a federal budget,” the report stated.

A representative of the Defense Alliance could not be reached Saturday.

At this time, it is unknown when the aircraft transfers will occur, but the Air Force will not be able to make force-wide restructuring decisions until a final defense appropriation and authorization bill is passed.

Representatives of Tyndall AFB could not be contacted for comment.

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Air Force is delaying the planned transfer of F-22 fighters from a New Mexico base to Tyndall Air Force Base because of a defense spending freeze.

The stealth fighters now based at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo were expected to be transferred to Tyndall in the spring.

The Alamogordo Daily News reports that Holloman officials said Friday the transfer of two F-16 training squadrons from Luke Air Force Base in Arizona to Holloman is also on hold.